[dude]

To Mary Wittenberg on the NYC Marathon
“Don’t be angry if I don’t run NYC soon but I will do it eventually!”

On Marathon
“It’s painful man.”

On the marathon world record
“Sub 2? In 25 years maybe. 2:02? Soon.”

On half marathon
“My favorite distance. You need speed and endurance.”

On running track
“Maybe the 25/30k world records? No 5 or 10k races, less injury risk on the road.”

On long runs
“When I started running marathons, I ran long runs up to four hours. The next day? Bad day. Now I do three hours max. My advice: don’t run more than 35k.”

On Kenyans
“Soon the Ethiopians will have caught up completely with the Kenyans. The rivalry with them is good. They need us and we need them. Paul Tergat and I are friends. He stays at my place, when he is in Addis and I stay at his when I’m in Nairobi.”

On beating Tergat in Sydney
“That came from god. Paul already had it. He did everything right and still…”

On training on bad days
“A day without training is like a day without eating.”

On feeling bad when waking up
“I wake up at 5.30. Nothing else but a run to do at that time anyway.”

On retirement
“If you put a deadline on your running, you’re done. So, if you ask me if I will be running in ten years, I will say yes. You say ‘but you will be in your forties’. And I will reply ‘our bodies don’t know numbers’”.

On poverty in Ethiopia and education
“You know they say ‘don’t give him a fish, show him how to fish’. If my kid falls, I tell my wife ‘Let him fall and get up himself.’”